Mark Clark is an Aussie songwriter, scriptwriter, voice over, author and drama coach. He was Pip in the ABC's version of Ethel Turner's Seven Little Australians.

About Mark

I'm a Secondary Teacher of Drama and English at Colo High School in Sydney, but apart from this, over the years I have been involved in many interesting projects. In the earlier part of my life I was particularly active in song writing and performing, but as the years have gone on I have spent more time on literary works.

As a high school student I was fortunate enough to be cast as 'Pip' in the 1973 ABC version of Ethel Turner's classic 'Seven Little Australians' and many other roles in television and radio followed.

In the 80's, after completing my degree in English and History, I formed my own band: 'Your System'. We played rock music, mainly my songs, around the Sydney circuit. We released a single which charted at 20 on the Independent Charts. I also worked as a solo artist playing covers and originals.

In the late eighties I worked in children's television, writing and performing on call for: 'The Ridgey Didge Show'. This was syndicated nationally and enabled me to become a writer full member of APRA (The Australasian Performing Right Association). At that same time I began work in the cast at a Rock 'n' Roll Theatre Restaurant. This show played for two years.I had my own small studio by then and began to record as series of educational rock songs for the NSW Department of Education which I called: 'Sing Along with History' but they called: 'Rock Historia'. The kit I produced covered the main ancient civilizations like Egypt, Greece and Rome and the kids could learn about them through listening to the songs and singing along.

I wrote a few jingles and a march for The Australian Light Horse Association, did some performances on an afternoon time talent show called: 'The Have A Go Show' and became a regular resident stand in for the show when acts dropped out. This gave me a chance to play my original songs on a national show.

I wrote several short stories and one unpublished novel (the prototype for my later screenplay 'Strange Planet') in the early nineties, but it was in 1995 that I wrote my first musical comedy for stage: 'Pirates, Parrots and Penguins'. This is a gentle pantomime, which has proved the most popular of my plays so far, having been played by sixteen casts in Australia and New Zealand.

Seven other musical comedies followed:

Ponsemby's Castle (1996)

The Gods Show (1997)

Songs from the Bunker (1998)

Wayne Kerr High (1999)

Once Upon a Space Time (2000)

The Land of Dreams (2000)

Dodge City (2001)

'Ponsemby's Castle', 'The Land of Dreams' and 'The Gods Show' have all been played by several casts over the years. Nine songs from these plays have received awards in either the Australian National Song Competition, or the South Pacific Song Competition.

I put music to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's epic 144 stanza poem: 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. Written for stage, it has nineteen sections of music and the poem becomes the lyrics to these songs. The play has not so far been produced for stage, but between 2003 and 2005 I took a one-man-show version of the show into NSW high schools.

In 2006 I wrote and produced 'Stooge' a black comedy reversal on the old Scrooge story. In this, a really positive man is visited by three ghosts who show him what everyone has been saying behind his back and he ends up bitter and cynical. I produced this as a radio play in mid-2014.

In 2007 I self-published my first novel titled: 'I.Q.'. It is the story of a future world in which people can buy, sell and gamble their intelligence. At the time of writing this I am trying to find representation for 'The D.N.A Trilogy' (the prequel) and 'The I.Q. Trilogy'.

My objective is to find an agent to get my books to a wider audience and if possible to find a producer to turn this series of six science-fiction stories into movies. The six novels are each a couple of hundred pages long and contain sections of screenplay. They are to be visualised as action/science fiction movies.

In recent years I have written three screenplays: 'The Cutting of Keys' (Romantic Comedy) and 'Strange Planet' (Action/Science Fiction) and 1978 (family comedy). I am currently seeking a movie producer for these. 'The Cutting of Keys' made it through to the quarter-finals of the American-based PAGE Screenwriting Awards Competition. '1978' reached the second round (top 20%) in 2012 in a field of nearly 6,000 entries.

Awards

Since 1995, when I started writing my musical comedies, I have received nine awards for my songs. These awards have come from "The South Pacific Song Contest" and "The Australian Songwriters" Association Song Contest". I have won awards in seven categories during that time.